10 Reasons For NOT Becoming a Car Salesman

Thinking about being a car salesman as a career change? Are you looking for an industry or an occupation, but have questions and doubts? If you are thinking about selling cars for a living this might be a great place too start. The objective of this article is to help you make a decision by uncovering the reasons for not becoming a car salesman. Yes, there are some great benefits including the income potential, but there are also negatives to being a car salesman.

When it comes to business of selling cars there are more stories, rumors and speculations about being a car salesperson than you can count. The information here will help decide if this is the right profession for you to pursue, but actually doing it is the only way to know for sure. Go through these points and be honest with yourself. I have seen more car sales wannabes come and go than I can count. Forget about what you may have heard because these reasons for not becoming a car salesman are based on experience not hearsay.

Top Reasons For NOT Becoming a Car Salesman

You’re Not Hungry: If you aren’t hungry and when I say hungry I mean you are hungry to make big money. You should have a competitive nature. Car sales are all about competition either in a group or with your self. You will be competing for customers, bonuses and commissions. You are always looking for a better way and you always want to sell more cars. If you are not hungry and you are happy with being average this is a great reason for not becoming a car salesman.

Hard Work: Regardless of what you may have heard being a successful car salesman is hard work. The good ones might make it look easy, but you wont make a six-figure car salesman income selling cars by sitting around all day drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and waiting for the next customer. Being a top salesperson requires phones calls, follow-up, prospecting and much more. If you are looking for a job where you don’t have to work very hard forget about becoming a car salesman or at least a successful one.

Don’t Like People: You will be dealing with all kinds of people everyday all day and they will be paying your salary. If you don’t like talking and working with a wide variety of people from every walk of life than car sales may not be for you. You don’t need to be the life of the party or even a very social person, but if you despise spending time with different people on a daily business that’s enough reason for not becoming a car salesman. There is a say in the car business that says it all “If you are not in front of a customer you are unemployed”.

Worried About What Other People Think: If you spend your time worrying about what people think about you it’s time to start looking somewhere else for a job. You need to be confident and self-assured to make it big in the car business. There is no reason for you to become a car salesman. You must believe in yourself and your abilities and not worry about others think to be a success.

Negative Attitude: The car business needs people with a positive attitude. If you are generally a negative person you probably won’t get too far as a car salesman. You can be cynical and skeptical, but not negative because there is a difference. If you are always waiting for something bad to happen it probably will and your sales will suck too. This is reason enough for not becoming a car salesman because a positive attitude is a huge part of being a great car salesman.

Money Burns a Hole in Your Pocket: If you are bad with money and have a tendency to spend your paycheck a couple days after payday you won’t last as a car salesperson. The professional car salesman gets paid a commission on their sales. Therefore no sales equal zero pay. If you absolutely must have a fixed amount of pay every Friday forget about becoming a car salesman. However if you want to make more money and get paid for results rather than hours you showed up you are probably on the right track.

No Self-Control: Do you have self-control? Can you bite your tongue when you need to? There will be plenty of times that you will want to speak your mind when you are selling cars, but you can’t. You need to be able to control yourself, your words and your actions. Don’t even consider becoming a car salesman if you lack self-control. You don’t need to be a master at controlling yourself, but you need to know when to bite your tongue and sell a car rather than speak your mind.

Held Accountable: The car salesman is responsible for their results. Simply showing up to work on time is not enough. As we say in the car business “What have you done for me lately?” You are expected to sell cars month in and month out. No excuses only results not to mention your results will be directly reflected in your compensation. If all you do is come to work, waste ups and fry customers you will find yourself on the outside looking in. You must sell cars consistently not occasionally.

Work Holidays: If you are looking for a job where you get all holidays off keep moving. Most dealerships are open on many (not all) holidays and if you are a car salesman you will be working because these are big days in the car business. I have seen a few dealerships that allow their top sales people to take the holidays off, but this is very rare. There is very good money to be made on these days, but for some this is a major reason for not becoming a car salesman.

Long Hours: Many people that are former car salesmen complain about the hours, but usually these people never sold many cars either. Granted you will be working more than 40 hours a week, but according to the successful car salesman it’s well worth it when you can earn a six-figure income. To some people the car salesman hours are one of the best reasons for not becoming a car salesman. You can check out the hours car salesmen work here for an accurate picture.

I am sure there are many more reasons for not becoming a car salesman, but these made the top ten. Please feel free to add your thoughts or opinions below. After reading through this list only you can decide if selling cars is right for you. Nothing is for certain until you actually do the job, but unless you are going to give it everything you’ve got don’t even bother because its not for everyone.

4 Comments

Chris
· April 18 at 6:58 pm

KB-

Agree 100% on points, except the last one. One thing that motivates millennials is their PERSONAL time. Having been in the car business for 15 years, and not being a Millennial I can tell you, I'll work the hours and grind away until month end. Start a new for the next month, rinse, repeat. However as the automobile business continues to attract new blood into it's showrooms, shops and parts departments, the industry of long, painful and unforgiving hours just don't work. We have the data and metrics and each dealership/dealer principal doesn't need to 'reinvent the wheel' if you will. They just need to pay attention to the highs and lulls of clients. Any top producer doesn't really need to greet fresh clients, they have their book of business and work their CRM tirelessly. The only reason dealerships are open now is out of pure ego. In my market along there's plenty of business (more then enough actually). But dealerships don't need to be open so many hours. And thus back to my point. As more and more millennials are of work force age (out of college or in mid 20's age group) less and less would find our chosen career path appealing. We could argue the merits of understanding hard work, but if this business plans on keeping up with the time, it better pay attention to that declining recruitment numbers for its dealerships and start thinking about being more efficient with it's hours. I'd be willing to wager double six figures that if clients know the hours are more limited, they'll start coming in - earlier! *gasp!*

Cheers.

Bill davis
· March 28 at 11:26 pm

Hi there,I have been selling cars for 27 years . I started out in parts,on the desk,finance,gm ,every word that's says manager,but made moore selling cars. Here"s the problem in every dealership every one knows moore than every one else but knows shit. Numbers don't lye no one wants to work now days whant everything for free right. I made in 2005 year 188,000 . It's very simple work hard ,fous,patence,and out of all the steps? Which a very very few people know. Not talking about how smart you are im talking about the steps . The most important step of all is to put the customer in the right car,, we know all about meet and greet,building report,fact finding, trail close asking for the sale. But one that is a mistray ,put the customer on the right car in the begging,very few cars sales people can do this I have seen 20car month guys still can't do this,so now I'm a manager I'm the big man I know everything about the car business but I know shit. Because I want to talk and talk about how smart I am , take the cotton out of your ears put in your mouth. The best car sales people have to a a strong drive ,be number one,very ag,tack control of the customer,and listing but you have one chance of all put the customer on the right car first,if you asked for the sale and turn to fourteen salesmen before I live and drop the price to a loser deal no commitment . You never had the people on the right car o yes I listing to the customer very good but not smart enough to put on the right car . But I know everything I'm a smart guy i have been in the bus for 9 years ,to me you know shit.

KB
· January 3 at 5:41 am

Thanks Kevin
That's the idea.

Kevin L
· January 2 at 8:28 pm

I love it these are great points like it says up top if your ok with being average, and dont want to put in the work to get the results you feel you deserve than you should defintally stay away from the car business but for me I love the challenge, the opportunity, and the potential this job brings. I push myself everyday to be better and the truth is most days I fail but I see falling short for what it is an opportunity for growth.

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